June 28, 2006

Senate Committee on Verge of Consumer Win

The Senate is expected to wind up its markup of legislation that will streamline the video franchise process and move one step closer to a video marketplace where the consumer rules, not the cable company. There will be some heated debate on issues that could derail the bill like network neutrality. The committee should focus on sections where there is consensus – opening up the cable marketplace to competition – and take up the other contentious issues another time. Consumers deserve a victory and the Senate can make it happen. Move forward on video choice and leave the side issues behind.

Comments

Thanks for asking about C4CC's stance on net neutrality, Thomas. We've been very clear that while we respect the concerns people have raised about net neutrality, we believe Step One is to remove the current barriers to entry that are slowing down the entry of competitive providers into the video market. There is great support for competitive cable choice and if considered on its own, we believe it will be enacted and consumer benefits will be swift in coming. With healthy competition in the marketplace, customers who are unhappy with their current provider can switch and hopefully find better service. Most American cable customers who are unhappy now with their cable providers can't switch -- unless its to switch their cable off altogether. They can, however, find another provider for every other communication service. Why should cable TV be any different?

The concerns raised by those seeking the addition of net neutrality provisions to the cable competition bill are complex and worthy of debate -- but there's plenty of time for that debate next year. The term "net neutrality" hasn't been defined yet, so how can it adequately be remedied?